Monday 19 January 2015

YES to engineering entrepreneurship!

Engineering YES (Young Entrepreneurs Scheme) is a simple and direct way for universities to educate researchers all about innovation commercialisation. Fundamentally, it is a team-based training event. YES take a “hot house” approach, exposing participants to a fast-paced, experiential environment. All training is delivered by business and industry specialists (covering areas including Intellectual Property, finance, marketing, routes to market, venture capital, etc).

Each team brings a “future possible” idea for an engineering-related technology or service which could be taken to market. This is normally loosely based on the real research of one of the team members. They apply their learning to this idea as they develop a business plan to bring it to market. Their plan is presented orally to a panel of industry judges on the third day of the event.

YES 2014 involved 125 researchers grouped into 25 researcher teams from 12 different UK Universities, and around 50 speakers, mentors and judges from business and industry (eg: Rolls-Royce, E.ON), patent attorneys, venture capitalists and engineering entrepreneurs.

Applications for the 2015 competition need to be submitted by 13 March, with regional heats taking place during April, May and June, ahead of a grand final in Birmingham on 17 June.

Funding

Researchers need to be funded onto the programme by their home universities. Historically, this has led to the event being dominated by researchers from larger red-brick universities, but even central funding streams at these institutions are running out, so the event is looking for more industry support. According to YES coordinator Dr Jo Gilman:

"We work without any central funding and fund our programme using a “pay by participant” model – so each university that sends researchers to us pay fees for each person they send. The average spend for a team of researchers is around £4,000."

Research to Industry, September 2015

IMAPS UK
The AEngD has received details of an event promoting industry-academia collaboration. The third Research to Industry day, organised by the UK chapter of the International Microelectronics Assembly and Packaging Society (IMAPS UK), and supported by the IEEE, is taking place at the University of Sheffield on 3 September 2015.

The organisers are hoping for EngD contributions: "EngDs are an excellent initiative to promote such collaborations, and I am looking for some case studies by your members (large and small companies) or an overview of the funding opportunities to foster these relationships," says Dr Anne Vanhoestenberghe (email Anne if you would like further details).

This event, previously attracting over 100 delegates, allows an industrial audience to meet and network with researchers active in the field of microelectronics assembly and packaging. This year's event will include keynotes from the different UK funding bodies (innovate UK and research councils) to explain the different funding options available to the industry, and case studies illustrating the benefits of those schemes to the industrial partner.